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78th Regiment of Foot 1793 Discharge Papers 1817.

Hello all
Researching my wife's grandmother's family tree of INNES and have found that her great great grandfather enlisted in April 1793 in the 78th Regiment of Foot. He also wrote a autobiography of his life entitled. The Life of Roderick Innes, lately of HM Seventy-Eight Regiment written by Himself printed and published by Alexander Clark, Stonehaven, 1844. Haven't managed to track down a copy of this but if anyone can advise on this I would be very grateful.

The second question relates to his discharge papers where it states that he was 23 years old when he enlisted making his birth year 1770. There is however a hand written addition on the right hand side which seems to suggest he was only 17, making his birth year 1776.. Having some difficultly in making out the full written text though. Can anyone with more experience advise on this section of text, to the right hand corner of the box..

He lived until 1852 when the Stonehaven Press and Journal had him aged 83 making his birth year 1769.. so you can appreciate my confusion.. He was awarded Army of India Medal with three clasps and the Peninsular Medal with Clasp for 1811 Invasion of Java. My wife certainly has won 'who has the best military family history' as there is no way I can beat being commanded by Major General Arthur Wellesley (who later became the Duke of Wellington).

Solved my problem.. Hand written note on rhs of discharge papers says
'date of enlistmt Apl 1794 &
age at enlistmt 17 proved by
the old Desc Bk & GSR - date stated
1793 in
the Bks
from which
the Desc
was made
out'
So the question over his age on enlistment. They do not appear to have reduced his pensionable service for any service under age.

There is one change - they have increased his service in India from 10 years 2 months to 16 years 6 months on the back page. This addition is important as men serving in either the East or West Indies received a 50% bonus in pensionable service due to the chances catching from a tropic disease. So he gets a total of 32 years + pensionable service and a pension of 1s 7d (19d) per day. This would have been more that his pay of about 1s 1d a day as a Drummer.

A possible explanation of the two ages is that he may have been 23 on joining the 78th. And he was previously in another regiment - possibly Militia - from the age of 17. Supporting this is the fact he seems to have joined the 78th as a Drummer. So he must have learnt the craft before this.

The time in India was not the only overseas service of the 78th. In the 1790s they served in Holland, France and the Cape.